Gathering Blue

Jun 07, 2020

Lois Lowry

122 responses.

Gathering Blue Kira an orphan with a twisted leg lives in a world where the weak are cast aside She fears for her future until she is sparred by the all powerful Council of Guardians Kira is a gifted weaver and is

Title: Gathering Blue

Author: Lois Lowry

ISBN: 9780544340640

Page: 458

Format: Hardcover

Kira, an orphan with a twisted leg, lives in a world where the weak are cast aside She fears for her future until she is sparred by the all powerful Council of Guardians Kira is a gifted weaver and is assigned a task that no other community member can carry out Though he talent keeps her alive and brings certain privileges, Kira soon realizes mysteries and secrets surroKira, an orphan with a twisted leg, lives in a world where the weak are cast aside She fears for her future until she is sparred by the all powerful Council of Guardians Kira is a gifted weaver and is assigned a task that no other community member can carry out Though he talent keeps her alive and brings certain privileges, Kira soon realizes mysteries and secrets surround her No one must know of her plans to uncover the truth about her world and to find out what exists beyond it.

About "Lois Lowry"

Lois Lowry

Taken from Lowry s website I ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother gentle, family oriented, eager to please Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car That left me in between, and exactly where I wanted most to be on my own I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.Because my father was a career military officer an Army dentist I lived all over the world I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother s hometown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college Brown University in Rhode Island , my family was living in Washington, D.C.I married young I had just turned nineteen just finished my sopho year in college when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires California Connecticut a daughter born there Florida a son South Carolina Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School another daughter another son and then to Maine by now with four children under the age of five in tow My children grew up in Maine So did I I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old it was built in 1768 farmhouse on top of a hill In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and readMy books have varied in content and style Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme the importance of human connections A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.The Giver and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy Messenger take place against the background of very different cultures and times Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.I am a grandmother now For my own grandchildren and for all those of their generation I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring , and doing , for one another.

122 Comments

That's not a plot, that's a twist!I read this book as a companion to "The Giver," and I was pretty disappointed. The underlying sense of unease and the tense pacing that makes the Giver so fantastic just isn't present in "Gathering Blue." Part of this, is that because it is a companion book, I read this book differently than I read the Giver. Instead of reading the book with white knuckles and wide eyes, thinking, "What the heck is wrong with these people???" I read it thinking, "Yeah, yeah, cre [...]

Alright kids, settle down! It's time for our lesson of the day. Today we will be focusing on Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry, which is her follow-up to The Giver, a popular modern classic that I know many of you loved.But first let's clear the room of any adults disguised as kids. You know who you are! You read books written for children and young adults that are intended to be modern day parables, stripped of details and complicated, "realistic" characters, stories that are intended to be less abo [...]

If you want to know what the book is about, read the synopsis. I stopped doing book reports when I was in grade school. If you want to know what I thought of the book, read onWow, what a well written little story. Little in the sense it isn't long but there is a wonderful sense of economy with her writing, no, or very little, extraneous material. No outside characters that clog up the narrative.I did see one of the plot twist coming and wondered why the author took her sweet time about revealing [...]

I had this book mapped out in my mind. From where The Giver left off, I was sure book #2 would begin with Jonas and Gabriel surviving and finding the mainstream community, like that of our modern civilization with music, color, and love, and then they live happily ever after. But book #2 wasn't concerned about telling Jonas's life story or a respite to what might face humankind in the future. Lowry was continuing to explore the world of a post-apocalyptic society. In this book, she has created a [...]

Kira is a young girl who was born with a twisted leg, causing her to limp and need a walking stick. She is considered weak and useless by most of the people in her village, but her mother refused to leave her out in the field for the beasts to get like everyone else did with “damaged” babies and those who broke the rules too many times.This story has nothing to do with The Giver, but it could be another community in the same world far, far away. While The Giver was a utopian/dystopian backgr [...]

Gathering Blue (The Giver, #2), Lois LowryGathering Blue is a young adult-social science novel, written by Lois Lowry and released in the year 2000. It is a companion book to The Giver (1993) being set in the same future time period and universe, treating some of the same themes, and is followed by Messenger (2004), and Son (2012) in The Giver Quartet. The central character, Kira, who has a deformed leg, is orphaned and must learn to survive in a society that normally leaves the weak or disabled [...]

athering Blue is a companion novel to The Giver. This is a gentle warning that you won’t get any sort of resolution from The Giver with this book. Despite that little niggle, I actually really enjoyed Gathering Blue. I loved following Kira’s story as she faced an uncertain future. I really enjoy Lois Lowry’s writing style. I love how her books are frustrating, but so bloomin’ wonderful at the same time. The world which she imagines is rather terrifying.Gathering Blue follows Kira, as she [...]

Reading this book reminded me a lot of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (which a lot of people hated but is my favorite movie of his that I've seen!)--a village that seems just too good to be true, with a suspicious group of leaders and a question as to whether there really are monsters in the woods that are dangerous to the inhabitants.I found it best to go into this without expectations, since I loved The Giver and knew this was supposed to be a companion novel to it, I didn't want to let my l [...]

Going into this book knowing that it is the companion to The Giver did not do me any favors. The problem is that The Giver is so darn good that any "companion" would not live up to it. This is what happened.One problem is that there isn't a whole lot going on. Kira leads us through a ton of information about weaving/sewing, threads, dyes, plants, etc. I really expected something bigger to come out of this. Some sort of explanation for her being. Nope. None. You do get the feeling that a lot more [...]

Gathering Blue is an unlikely sequel to The Giver, Lois Lowry's famous dystopia. It's unlikely because it has literally nothing to do with its predecessor, and I'm not sure why it was even written.Like The Giver, Gathering Blue is also a dystopian novel andalthough you might find it difficult to believe the dystopian world in the novel is even less developed than the one in The Giver. Basically, the story is set in a village at some unspecific point in time, where people who cannot work and cont [...]

At the age of 63, I've read "The Giver" and have now read "Gathering Blue." I continue to be impressed. I like authors who take simple elements and make a complex story out of them. There's no rich historical tapestry nor complicated interplay of personalities. This is a story that adults can appreciate, and I wonder what it would have been like to read this story when I was 12 years old. (Of course, when I was 12 years old, this story hadn't been written).Once again, it is set in a society whic [...]

The problem with this book is it doesn't seem like it's the same world as The Giver.The Giver world was full of technology that blocked out WEATHER and they genetically altered people. They had pills that suppressed feelings and passion. There were no mammals and birds allowed!But the world in this book is gritty and dirty. Parents smack their kids. Men hunt with spears. Women can't read, it's sexist and horrible. Everyone has to punch each other and beat each other up for the slightest thing. T [...]

Boring and predictable and trite and not at all what I was expecting. I thought it was a continuation of The Giver but it isn't. I thought it would be in the same world as The Giver but I can't see any similarities. I thought it would be science fiction but there is nothing along the lines of The Giver in that department. This might be a great read for a young adult who hasn't read the giver or doesn't know it's part of that "series" but I didn't enjoy it at all and couldn't finish it. For those [...]

This started out okay, but I lost interest as it went on.I felt quite sorry for Kira and the way she was treated in this book, the people of this village were seriously harsh, and really didn’t give anybody a chance if they had any kind of disability or impairment!The storyline was about Kira being at risk of being thrown out of the village where she lived after her mother died, and her life thereafter. There were a lot of plot-points that were entirely too obvious and the slow pace in the sec [...]

A quick read, that is a little confusing as it didn't seem to relate to the first book in the series.Kira has just lost her mother and the only thing standing between her and the cruel women of the village. She is crippled, and in their eyes she is just another mouth to feed. One that contributes nothing. But she does have one skill, one that may save her life.This world is very different from the one I entered with the first book in the series. People are dirty. They fight for food, keep their [...]

Gathering Blue is the second installment in author Lois Lowry's The Giver Quartet. I was pretty confused going into this book as I just assumed the story would be picking back up at the point where The Giver ended. But Gathering Blue is a different story with different characters. Dystopian? Yes. But it features a much calmer world than what I've become accustomed in the dystopian genre. It's not bad at all, just different. This story taught me that dreams of darkened alternate futures don't alw [...]

While Gathering Blue is the second book in The Giver Quartet, it is not a sequel to The Giver. There are similarities, though. Both stories explore themes of physical and emotional pain, individual worth, communal memory, and the role of the governing body of a community -- all, amazingly through the eyes and experiences of children.I really love the main characters, Kira, Thomas, Matt, and Jo. (I even feel fond of Matt's resilient dog, Branch.) In the midst of the violence and anxiety of their [...]

Original Post: Gathering Blue at FLYLeF (flylef) with 3.5/5LOIS LOWRY CONTINUES to create a unique world in her second volume of The Giver quartet. In Gathering Blue, she intricately weaves a society wrought with poverty, where savagery, greed, and deceit prevail, and the weak are mercilessly shunned and discarded.Kira, born physically flawed, is destined for abandonment in the Field of Leaving. By the fierce protection and love of her mother, she marginally escapes this heartless custom. When h [...]

"Gathering Blue" is a refreshing dystopian novel with an engrossing plot and well-rounded characters. Presenting a new kind of a dystopian society, it introduces the reader to a new kind of a society: it's not as progressive and sophisticated as those ones described in many dystopian books. In this book Lois Lowry strayed off the beaten path and it made the book even more interesting to read.It was artistically written - really, not only dealt the narration with artistic issues throughout the bo [...]

“Take pride in your pain," her mother had always told her. "You are stronger than those who have none.” I'm going to start off by saying that I read Gathering Blue a long time ago for school. I first read this book in 2013 for my Year 1 Literature class. I think I liked the book and had a pleasant experience reading it, but after that my memories are obscured by all the discussions of themes, characters, plot and setting that we had in class, and so I don't think I really appreciated the sto [...]

SpoilersI enjoyed this slightly more than The Giver (the first book in the series). Kira was a far more relatable protagonist than Jonas… However, she wasn't very endearing — she lacked depth and just wasn't very interesting — all there was to her was her niceness and her ability to let other people push her around, control her and use her. I would have preferred a heroine that was more in charge of herself and more aware of her surroundings. The world in Gathering Blue wasn't quite as fas [...]

Is it just me, or is this book missing an ending? I understand cliffhangers and I understand open endings, but this books ends without anything being resolved whatsoever. THE GIVER has an incredibly open ending, but the main conflicts were resolved and action was taken. In this, I have no idea how anything is fixed or changed. There is no confrontation with Jamison, no confrontation with Vandana, no confrontation about Annabella's/Katrina's/Thomas's & Jo's parents deaths, nothing about the t [...]

Having loved the first book, The Giver, I couldn't wait to start reading Gathering Blue. Besides the author has a spectacular writing style. She manages to draw you into a completely different world in a matter of chapters, never wastes words, and wraps up stories with infuriatingly unsatisfying endings. What more could you want in a book? Well, Gathering Blue, didn't disappoint, but it didn't quite meet the high-mark of The Giver. While The Giver was impossibly different, unreal and fascinating [...]

4 StarsWell, I must say this was pretty good.We get to experience another enclave in this mysterious world, created in the first book of the series; The Giver. Another settlement of higher council stiffs, lording over those less fortunate. When special gifts are displayed, those gifted are chosen (stolen) to serve; and everything and everyone around them is expendable. A few twists in the story, but the ending was not satisfactory. Why choose that route?? Why not peace?? Why?? I am not saying th [...]

I really enjoyed this Book #2 of The Giver series. It has a little mystery, drama, and sweetness all put together in this one book. And it has enough of a secret at the end that it leaves the reader wanting to get to the next book (Messenger) to see what happens! Can't wait!

This and other reviews can be found on The Psychotic NerdMY THOUGHTSIf you're expecting a sequel to The Giver, you will be very disappointed. The two books are completely unrelated to one another. Just think of this book has another dystopian and you will enjoy it more.This book focuses on Kira. She's a young girl, born with a bad leg and shunned for it. When her mother dies she is kicked out of her home and left for dead. She's saved only by her talent with thread and weaving. She finds a new h [...]

This book is the second in a four part series by Lois Lowry, its predecessor being the widely known and acclaimed novel The Giver. A fantastic read, I thoroughly enjoyed Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in a book with a unique take on science fiction writing. While unusual, the abnormal setting did not take away from the story – in fact, I think it made the story even better. In most stories that occur in futuristic worlds, there is a pretty meagre li [...]

This book is about a Teenage girl that was born with a leg deform at birth. Her mother just passed away and her father got dragged away by the fierce piece in the woods that they nearby. Kira, The Teenage girl was known to be like 'useless' to the village because of her deformed leg and they planned to kick her out of the village and take away her house. Kira didn't want to have her house taken because if it was taken she wouldn't have a place to live so they let the Council of Guardians to deci [...]